LETTERS for the June 14 issue

June 14, 2018

On behalf of King Kamehameha III Elementary School, I would like to thank T-Mobile for the exceptionally generous donation to our school! Each year, T-Mobile recognizes men and women doing great work by sending them to Maui, and extra gifts from the trip were donated to our kids.

We plan on using the gifts to support our curriculum, as well as having some fun in the water. The students are so excited! Again, a huge mahalo to T- Mobile.

CLAIRE TILLMAN, Parent Community Networking Center Facilitator

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Surfers need to be aware of pier planned for Lahaina Harbor

Surfers should carefully study the architectural drawings/plans for the new passenger loading pier ("ferry pier") planned to be built immediately next to the surf break at Lahaina Harbor. Plans and drawings for document POH-2015-00221 PDF Lahaina can easily be found online.

The drawings for the new pier are dated 2015 and were apparently discussed at a public information meeting at that time. They are about to become a reality. Neither the potential effects on the wave itself, nor on the many 'ohana surf activities (such as surf events for groms from all over Maui and Neighbor Islands) held at the Harbor surf spot, are addressed (or even mentioned) in the planning document.

No later than June 20 (the cutoff date for public comments on the plan), surfers should insist on a public hearing of these plans, so that all of our questions and concerns can be addressed. As Harbor is a family cultural gathering spot, the hearing should be scheduled at a time and place that allows all members of our surf 'ohana to attend and make their views heard.

Please check out the plans for the new pier and discuss them with other members of the surf community. Harbor is an important part of our local surf culture. It should not be sacrificed on the altar of the tourist economy. Mahalo!

ROBBIE LOPAKA MAUI

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Volcanic eruption a sign from God?

Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano is poised to let us know what God thinks of the Supreme Court's interpretation of the constitutional protections of freedom of religion and freedom of speech for a cake baker, a florist and the God-fearing.

MICHAEL W JARVIS, Salt Lake City, Utah

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Work in Moku'ula is unforgivable

I ask humbly to remove yourselves off this very sacred royal lands of my Maui royalties. I am of our Wainee Ahupuaa where only our Maui royalties resided. Please stop 25 years of illegal burial diggings and taking of our Maui bones of iiwi and our Maui artifacts. This is unforgivable.

PRINCESS LEHUANANI KUMAEWAKAINAKALEOMOMONA, Lahaina

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Who Is Kim Yong-chol?

General Kim Yong-chol is arriving in New York to discuss North Korea's denuclearization with top U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whom Kim has met twice.

The meetings promise to be difficult, because Kim has a reputation as a tough negotiator who is very familiar with intelligence and weapons issues.

Kim may also have been behind the so-called Cheonan incident in 2010 - the apparent torpedoing of a South Korean Navy corvette that resulted in loss of 46 sailors.

The U.S. sanctioned Kim in 2014, reflecting the widespread belief, rejected by Pyongyang and Beijing, that North Korea was responsible for the sinking.

Kim Yong-chol has a long resume that reflects the breadth of his experience and the reasons Kim Jong-un chose him to represent North Korean interests at this crucial time before the planned Trump-Kim summit.

Most importantly, Kim Yong-chol worked on intelligence for about 30 years, including as director of the Reconnaissance General Bureau, the North Korean equivalent of the CIA.

He also rose in the Korean Workers Party hierarchy, eventually becoming a vice-chair of the KWP Central Committee and a member of its important Military Affairs Commission.

But what may be most notable about Kim Yong-chol is that he has served - and survived - all three members of the Kim dynasty. Thus, Kim Jong-un clearly deems Kim Yong-chol entirely trustworthy.

Moreover, Kim Yong-chol has extensive experience negotiating with the South Koreans, including the comprehensive 1992 North-South joint declaration that pledged both countries not to "test, manufacture, produce, receive, possess store, deploy or use nuclear weapons" and not to "possess nuclear reprocessing and uranium enrichment facilities."

Most recently, Kim was among the North Korean leaders who met with South Koreans when they issued the Panmunjom Declaration on inter-Korean relations and the nuclear issue.

A fair assumption is that Kim Yong-chol will spell out the conditions under which North Korea would embrace "complete, irreversible, verifiable denuclearization," the official U.S. position.

He will no doubt insist on establishing a step-by-step framework for dismantlement or, possibly, some other arrangement for dealing with North Korea's nuclear arsenal.

And at each step, Kim presumably will want to know what the U.S. is prepared to offer in the way of firm security assurances, starting with an official renunciation of the John Bolton "Libya model" that Pompeo has now invoked to deal with Iran.

The New York meetings will therefore either pave the way for a substantive agreement at the summit in Singapore or become another roadblock to ever holding one.